Alacan
Mongoose Publishing produced a sourcebook called "The Galactic Guide" written by Ian Harac that puts details of some races wiped out by the Dilgar. Non-canon sources tell that among these were the Alacans, the Mitoc and Krish. '''Alacans '''were a space-faring race native from a planet called Alaca and neighbors of the Abbai. They were one of the races that most suffered the hands of the Dilgar Invasion. History Alaca is a slightly dry world, not a desert planet, but given more to plains and prairie than swamps and rainforests. Fresh water was still rare enough to be valuable and the early Alacans, a race of people best described as ‘catlike’, warred over it constantly. Warfare led, as it often does, to technological advancement, and, over millennia, the Alacans moved from flint to bronze to iron to gunpowder to atoms. Then, unlike many other races, they stopped. Given the prospect of global annihilation they opted for peace. Warring nations set down their arms and forged treaties. With difficulty, past sins and wrong were forgiven, if never truly forgotten. The breakthroughs made in the pursuit of death were turned to exploration and the Alacans took their first steps into space, where they encountered the Abbai and began to trade with them peacefully, including purchasing some outdated weapons systems – not enough to threaten anyone, just enough to avoid seeming like an easy target to the many predatory species they now knew existed. Unfortunately for them, the Dilgar were not dissuaded by ancient laser or missile weapons, nor by a fighting spirit rekindled from the ashes of peace into a blazing, reborn fury. The Alacans threw everything they had against the Dilgar invasion and were slaughtered. As the Earth Alliance debated joining the Dilgar War, this image was brought up and compared to the Poles in World War II riding their horse cavalry against the German blitzkrieg, an image of doomed courage. This did not save the Alacans. Their world was shredded, their race all but exterminated. Of the billions who once lived on Alaca, barely 10,000 remain alive, scattered among a half-dozen tiny outposts, mostly heavily shielded military bases. Even worse, the considerable gender dimorphism among the Alacans led to their military being overwhelmingly male; less than 10% of the survivors were females of breeding age. It is not certain the ravaged planet can sustain life for long. Almost forty years after the Dilgar War, the population is still in decline, with stillbirths and fatal birth defects very common, a legacy of radiation and biogenetic weapons. It is uncertain if the Interstellar Alliance may find a new, safe homeworld for the few survivors. Even if such thing happens, the Alacan species' gene pool is ruined and without enough genetic variability, the Alacan civilization will waste away until it dies out. Homeworld Alaca today is a blasted wasteland. The fertile veldt is burned away. The small seas are choked with ash, the same ash which blocks the sun and freezes what plant and animal life remains. The majority of surviving animal life falls into the ‘rat and roach’ categories; most food species, animal and plant alike, are extinct. Notes Like the Dilgar, the Alacans were a feline humanoid species with tendencies for aggression and war. But unlike the Dilgar, at some late point they came to a stop and evolved into something different. This, ironically, could be the cause of their downfall. Should the Alacans had taken the same steps as the Dilgar into becoming a full warrior race, maybe the invaders would never have dared to attack them. Category:Races Category:Extinct Races Category:Non-Canon Articles